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If you are going to send an email message to a large group of people, use the best practices outlined below to reduce the chances of your message ending up in the recipient's junk mail folder.
- Carefully chose your subject line. Don’t use punctuation.
- Check your list before you send. ISPs take note of mail being delivered to non-existent accounts. The higher the number of non-delivered messages, the higher the spam score attached to the message.
- Limit the use of “spam” words such as free, buy, won, prize, order, viagra, or click here.
- Don’t include a lot of images.
- Use a valid Dartmouth address for the “from” field (e.g. John.A.Doe@dartmouth.edu). Spam filters know the site from where the messages was sent; the "from" address should be from that same site.
- Limit the use of exclamations in the text.
- Limit the use of all caps - avoiding any word in all caps in recommended.
- Avoid colored fonts - especially red.
- Avoid changing the font too many times in a message.
- Avoid duplicate text in your message (e.g. don't say "contact us at 800-555-1111" repeatedly)
In addition, there are many bulk mailing services, such as MailChimp. If you use one of these services to send bulk email, they often have the ability to preview your message, give it a spam score, and provide suggestions on how to reduce that score before you ever send it.